Court delays ruling in Busch-Driscoll fracas, witness speaks out

By Jerry Jordan — CHARLOTTE, N.C. – A decision on whether or not Kent County (Del.) Family Court Commissioner, David Jones, will issue a protective order against former NASCAR Champion, Kurt Busch, on charges of domestic abuse by his ex-girlfriend, Patricia Driscoll, did not come this week because attorneys in the case needed an extension to file arguments in the case, Kickin’ the Tires has confirmed.

The case, which centers on Driscoll’s claim that Busch grabbed her around the neck and slammed her head three times against the wall in his motorhome, has been the buzz of the sport during the off-season. Testimony revealed Busch ended their relationship after the race in New Hampshire but she showed up unannounced on September 26 in Dover and let herself into his motor coach using the security code she learned while they were dating. Busch testified Driscoll refused to leave and after multiple requests, he cupped her face between his hands, looked her in the eyes and told her “you have to leave.” He said it was possible that she might have bumped her head in the cramped quarters of the motorhome but staunchly denied assaulting her.

“At no time did I attempt to hurt her or slam her head against the wall,” Busch said on the stand. “She said I am a fu**ing pus*y and a coward and that this is far from over.”

Weeks later, Driscoll drove to Dover and filed criminal charges against Busch, alleging domestic violence, as well as, signing a request for a protective order in family court.

In court, Busch said the claim that he assaulted her was ludicrous because Driscoll repeatedly told him throughout their relationship that she was a government operative, who worked undercover and killed Mexican drug lords.

“Frankly, I would have my ass handed to me,” Busch told the court.

At the end of the four-day hearing, which began in December and concluded after a month-long delay, Commissioner Jones told attorneys in the case he needed time to review his notes and read the entire transcript of the case, which was being expedited. There were no closing arguments in the case and no ruling was entered prior to his adjourning the court. He asked for briefs to be filed within a week by attorneys on each side in the case and said he would have a ruling in 10-days. Since that time Jones has granted an extension to file the closing briefs, which was requested by attorneys in the case.

“There is a great deal I need to go over,” Commissioner Jones said, upon concluding the hearing on January 13.

A ruling in the case is now expected sometime during the first week of February, or shortly thereafter.

An administrator with the family court records division told Kickin’ the Tires she was not permitted to provide information on cases over the phone. She said unless someone requests information in person, they are instructed to send a notarized letter, requesting information and documents on the case.

Attempts to reach attorneys in the case were not successful at the time of this publication.

On a related note, Charis Burrett, who testified briefly during the hearing, is now speaking out. She said she was prevented by Driscoll’s attorney, Carolyn McNeice, from talking about conversations she and Driscoll had during their eight year friendship. Burrett said Driscoll and her attorney didn’t want her testifying because she could shoot holes in Driscoll’s credibility.

Burrett detailed how she planned to testify about the first time Driscoll told her she was a “trained assassin.” It was a revelation that came during a dinner meeting three years before Driscoll and Busch began dating. She said the entirety of her story didn’t come out in court because McNeice repeatedly objected to her testimony and refused to ask her any questions on cross examination following her brief time on the stand as a witness for Busch.

The February 2003 Playboy Playmate and co-founder of urban clothing designer, Panic Switch Army, has been a friend of Driscoll’s since 2008 and didn’t meet the Busch, the 2004 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Champion, until about three-years later. She said Driscoll approached her in an effort to build a relationship between the Armed Forces Foundation charity and Burrett’s clothing company. Two-days after their initial meeting, Burrett and Driscoll decided to go to dinner and discuss further how Panic Switch Army could become more involved with the charity Driscoll represented.

“While she was still in California, the four of us, Luke (Burrett’s husband), myself, her assistant and Patricia all decided to go to have dinner. We went to Morton’s,” Burrett said. “And probably, within 30-minutes, we jump off-topic from armed forces and what we are doing to how she even got into armed forces or being a part of the military. You know, it’s not every day a young woman has got a foundation that is involved with veterans and the military and on Capitol Hill. So, I wanted to know that story.

“Right away, she starts talking to me about how she is a hit-woman, contracted hit-woman for the government and she was basically taken out of El Paso, Texas, as a teenager and taught how to do whatever assassins do. I don’t think she was really getting – I was kind of like wow, that’s interesting, that’s umm, a unique story. I think my less than believable attitude led her to keep going to which she proceeded to pull her cell phone out and showed me, along with Luke, pulls out two different photographs of two different what I would guess were hits. They were guys in front seats of cars; one of them a guy’s head was completely gone, blown off and just slumped over, sitting there. And the other one very similar, same kind of thing. You know, I am going, ‘wow.’ Okay, so there was, it’s one little piece of what some would consider proof. Who is walking around of photographs of dead people on the phone? And much less, the types of photographs that, you know, the FCC keeps us from seeing in the media. You know, obviously people in the military get to see it. But, not everybody gets to see photos like that. So, I am going, why is she showing this?”

It wasn’t long into the conversation before the reasoning behind Driscoll’s candidness about her alleged alternate career was revealed, Burrett said. The plan, it appeared to her, was that Driscoll was trying to recruit her for future missions across the U.S. border into Mexico.

“A few minutes more go by and we are having some drinks and talking and she proceeds to tell me her story and pulls her shirt up to about her bra and shows me a scar that goes all the way from, I would say the middle of her ribcage all the way down to her bellybutton,” Burrett said. “A nice big scar. The only other scar I had seen like that looked similar to that was from open heart surgery, really, really wide and really, really big but not done well, messy. And she proceeds to tell me that she had gotten that from a Mexican drug lord, over the border in Juarez, Mexico and she had been, you know, trailing for all of these years and time and he basically tried to gut her and gave her this scar. But she went back and, in a nightclub, proceeded to poison his drink and kill him right there.

“Then she proceeded to tell me that I would be perfect to work within her line of work and I would be perfect because nobody would suspect me to be an assassin, either, and if I were ever interested to let her know.”

As Burrett recounted the story Driscoll had told during the dinner eight years before, Luke could be heard in the background verifying the information and giving additional details that Burrett had skipped over. Specifically, Luke Burrett said that Driscoll claimed she poisoned the drug lord in the same club where she claimed to have originally been stabbed.

“That shit totally freaked me out,” Luke said, in the background. “

Burrett said she wants her story to be told because it wasn’t allowed during the protective hearing. She said, if the case moves forward on a criminal basis, she and others have every intention of coming forward and making it known what they have been told by Driscoll through the years. She said she believes Driscoll has carefully planned every aspect of ruining Busch from controlling the media and getting her message out to playing the role of a victim in a bogus claim of domestic violence.

“Not one person said a damn thing about this until I got on the stand after the pastor that day,” Burrett said. “The first thing they asked me about was the exact same story about seeing the scar and seeing these pictures and, you know, the second Rusty Hardin (Busch’s attorney) was done and she had a chance to cross-examine me, she didn’t. They wanted me off the stand.”

Driscoll was not happy with her former close friend dishing stories on her and trying to testify about the dinner from eight years ago. She questioned Burrett’s credibility and alleged she and her husband were beholden to Busch.

“Charis and Luke Burrett are clearly out to protect their business interests and their partnership with Kurt Busch,” Driscoll wrote, in a statement sent to Kickin’ the Tires and reprinted without editing. “Kurt owns 33% of their company which was cashless as of June 2014 to the best of my knowledge. As of September 2014 Mr. & Mrs. Burette owed Kurt three quarters of a million dollars ($750,000). Against my advice and the advice of his accountant and attorney he continued to give these people money. I am sure this former Playboy playmate and “self employed” husband will say anything to protect their business interests at this point.

“Mr. and Mrs. Burette were donors to Armed Forces Foundation with their company Silverstar. We maintained normal donor relations with them. I would not by any means consider us to have ever been close or good friends. To the best of my knowledge they didn’t honor their commitment to the foundation despite the fact they were selling shirts and making money off the foundation. When I called them out for spending all of Kurt’s money after overlooking their books in June of 2014 they became very angry with me.”

Burrett said Driscoll knows her comments would have corroborated what Busch said on the stand about her going on operations across the border and claiming to work for the government. That’s why she is speaking out, so people will hear the whole story.

“They are valid and true and she knows it,” Burrett said. “She knows that I know her and she has nothing to attack me with. There is nothing discrediting about me and she wanted me gone. You figure out how close someone gets when they are all staying under the same roof, in hotels, going out to dinner together and your kids are playing together.

“Whether she is a spy or not, I think she is bat-shit crazy. All she wants is attention.”

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About Jerry Jordan

Jerry Jordan is a nationally recognized writer for his coverage of NASCAR, as well as, investigative reporting. He created the Kickin' the Tires Web site as a way to bring visitors a behind-the-scenes look at what goes on in the sport of NASCAR.